2014年美国的人权纪录（全文）
Full text of Human Rights Record of the United States in 2014
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| 二、关于政治权利 | II. On Political Rights |
| 有国际知名政治学者指出：“美国政治制度日渐腐朽。政党分歧尖锐，分权体制给了利益集团和政治活动组织过度的话语权。”(35)美国前总统吉米·卡特也批评说，世界见证了一个“失灵的民主政体”。(36)这揭示了美国公民政治权利未能得到有效保障的制度根源。 | As a renowned political scientist pointed out, the U.S. political system has decayed over time, and in an environment of sharp political polarization, this decentralized system gives excessive representation to the views of interest groups and activist organizations (Foreign Affairs, September/October 2014). Former U.S. President Jimmy Carter said that the world sees "a democracy that's not working" (www.usatoday.com, October 11, 2013). It revealed the institutional root for the fact that the political rights of U.S. citizens had not been effectively protected. |
| 金钱依然操纵美国政治。2014年美国中期选举中，众议院和参议院选举的总花费接近40亿美元，成为有史以来最昂贵的一次中期选举。(37)有政治诉求的院外组织的投入占选举总费用的比例变得更大，来源不明的竞选赞助费增多。普通美国人对选举结果的影响在缩小。(38)华盛顿“K街”成为美国行政、立法和司法之外的“第四权力中心”。(39)游说合法化的背后是金钱、资本对政治的操控。缺乏约束的企业政治捐款成为一种“合法化的行贿”。(40)据《今日美国》2014年9月10日披露，自联邦最高法院2010年的裁决开启了政治捐款的闸门之后(41)，非法的“暗钱”不断进入选举中，本次竞选季“暗钱”的额度更是创下纪录：2010年只有1,600万美元，而2014年已经超过5,300万美元。(42)“大钱”、特殊利益集团、电视广告攻击，竞选的乱象也传染了法官竞选。相比于2002年之前，2012年院外集团花费在法官推选活动中的资金增长了8倍。(43)有学者指出，有钱有势的利益集团能轻易地以合法方式影响国会，只需先捐款，然后坐等不确定的回馈到来，得到政策上额外照顾。民主程序业已腐化或被金钱“绑架”。精英们嘴上满口“自由”，实际上却满心乐意享受特权。(44) | Money is still a deciding factor for the U.S. politics. Total spending in the 2014 midterm races was projected to top 4 billion U.S. dollars nationwide, making it the most expensive midterm election in history (www.latimes.com, October 28, 2014). Outside groups with political agendas picked up a larger share of the bill. More money than ever in the midterm came from secret sources. The influence of average Americans on the election results diminished (www.usatoday.com, November 2, 2014). "K Street" in Washington, D.C. -- located between Capitol Hill and the White House and known as a metonym for the country's lobbing industry -- became the fourth power center in the U.S. after administration, legislation and justice. Behind legalized lobbying was the political manipulation by money and capital. Unfettered corporate political donations became "legalized bribery" (www.usatoday.com, October 11, 2013). According to a USA Today report on September 10, 2014, "dark money" kept flowing into elections since a landmark Supreme Court decision in 2010 opened the floodgate on political donations. The U.S. Supreme Court ruled on Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission case on January 21, 2010 that the rules to restrict election campaign expenditures by for-profit corporations was in violation of the Constitution. During the 2014 campaign season, dark money exceeded 53 million U.S. dollars, up from 16 million U.S. dollars in 2010 (www.usatoday.com, September 10, 2014). Everything wrong with campaigns for other offices - big money, special interest groups and TV attack ads - also infected judicial election. Spending by outside groups to elect judges increased eight-fold from before the 2002 elections to that leading up to 2012 (www.usatoday.com, October 28, 2014). A legal scholar points out that interest groups are able to influence members of Congress legally simply by making donations and waiting for unspecified return favors. The democratic process has been corrupted or hijacked. In the contemporary U.S., elites speak the language of liberty but are perfectly happy to settle for privilege (Foreign Affairs, September/October 2014). |
少数族裔等群体的投票权受到压制。美国的选举权受到经济收入、种族等因素的限制，很多公民被排除在外。相比于2012年的总统选举，2014年的中期选举非洲裔参选率从13%下降到12%，拉美裔参选率从10%下降到8%，亚裔参选率从3%下降到2%。(45)选民身份立法在2014年依旧得到联邦最高司法机构的支持，最高法院允许德克萨斯州在11月的选举中继续施行有争议的选民身份法。大约60万选民，大多数是非洲裔或拉美裔，因为没有合格的身份证明而无法参加投票。(46)这些掺杂社会经济因素和种族因素的限制，受到选民权利倡导者竭力反对。(47)另外，美国多数有犯罪前科的公民也被排除、隔离在选举程序之外。多达585万的美国人因为犯过罪而不能投票，其中，爱荷华州、肯塔基州和佛罗里达州实行的政策最为严苛，剥夺任何曾被判决犯罪者的公民权。(48) | The voting rights of racial minorities and other groups are under suppression. The voting rights in the U.S. are restricted by economic income, race and other factors, and many citizens were prevented from voting. Preliminary exit polls showed that voters of African origins accounted for 12 percent in the 2014 midterm election, down from 13 percent in the 2012 presidential election. Hispanic voters dropped from 10 percent in 2012 to 8 percent and the proportion of Asian voters also reduced to two percent from three percent (www.usatoday.com, November 5, 2014). In 2014, the Supreme Court said that Texas could use its controversial new voter identification law for the November election. Roughly 600,000 voters, many of them black or Latino, could be turned away at the polls because they lacked acceptable identification (www.dailymail.co.uk, October 18, 2014). Voting rights advocates were up in arms over the socioeconomic and racial factors of these new restrictions (www.upi.com, November 3, 2014). In addition, criminal disenfranchisement removed massive swaths of society from the democratic process as a collateral consequence of conviction. A striking 5.85 million Americans could not vote because of a criminal conviction before. Many disenfranchised citizens lived in Iowa, Kentucky, or Florida -- the three states with extreme policies of disenfranchising anyone with a felony conviction for life (www.aclu.org, November 17, 2014). |
| 美国公民对选举政治越来越失去信心。民意调查显示，大多数美国民众对2014年的选举活动感到失望和厌倦。三分之二的民众认为国家走在错误的轨道上。(49)据《赫芬顿邮报》2014年12月2日报道，中期选举的几周前，国会的民众支持率仅有9%。(50)与选举花费高昂形成对照的是，本次中期选举的投票率是第二次世界大战以来历次选举最低。截至2014年11月3日，仅有36.4%的选民参与投票。印第安纳州仅有28%，为全国最低。(51) | The American citizens have increasingly lost confidence in electoral politics. According to most polls, Americans approached the 2014 elections in a sour mood. Two-thirds said the nation had gotten off on the wrong track (www.usatoday.com, November 2, 2014). According to a report by the Huffington Post on December 2, 2014, only nine percent of Americans approved of Congress in the weeks leading up to the midterms elections (www.huffingtonpost.com, December 2, 2014). In contrast to the high costs, general election voter turnout for the 2014 midterms was the lowest in any election cycle since the World War II. As of November 3, 2014, only 36.4 percent of the voting-eligible population cast ballots. Indiana had the lowest turnout rate, with just 28 percent of eligible voters participating (www.washingtonpost.com, November 10, 2014). |
注(35) 《外交事务》，2014年（9月/10月）。 注(36) 《今日美国》网站（www.usatoday.com），2013年10月11日。 注(37) 《洛杉矶时报》网站（www.latimes.com），2014年10月28日。 注(38) 《今日美国》网站（www.usatoday.com），2014年11月2日。 注(39) 华盛顿“K街”位于美国国会山和白宫之间，是美国著名的“游说一条街”。 注(40) 《今日美国》网站（www.usatoday.com），2013年10月11日。 注(41) 美国联邦最高法院于2010年1月21日对“联合公民诉联邦选举委员会案”（Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission）作出判决，认定限制商业机构资助联邦选举候选人的两党选举改革法案的条款违宪。 注(42) 《今日美国》网站（www.usatoday.com），2014年9月10日。 注(43) 《今日美国》网站（www.usatoday.com），2014年10月28日。 注(44) 《外交事务》，2014年（9月/10月）。 注(45) 《今日美国》网站（www.usatoday.com），2014年11月5日。 注(46) 英国《每日邮报》网站（www.dailymail.co.uk），2014年10月18日。 注(47) 美国合众国际新闻社网站（www.upi.com），2014年11月3日。 注(48) 美国公民自由联盟网站（www.aclu.org），2014年11月17日。 注(49) 《今日美国》网站（www.usatoday.com），2014年11月2日。 注(50) 《赫芬顿邮报》网站（www.huffingtonpost.com），2014年12月2日。 注(51)《今日美国》网站，2014年11月2日；《华盛顿邮报》网站（www.washingtonpost.com），2014年11月10日。 | |
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